This invention relates to the field of submunitions generally, and particularly to the field of grenade fuzes.
Grenades used by the various military services are basic items such as the U.S. Army's M42, M46, or XM77, and are generally armed with a standard fuze such as the M-223. The grenades may be carried in various quantities as submunitions in a variety of items of ammunition on a carrier which delivers them to a point above a target where they are ejected at various altitudes from the carrier by preset fuzing. The items, upon entering the airstream are still in a safe condition since the point of the arming screw is held fixed, preventing arming until the rotation of a trailing ribbon, which extends in flight, rotates enough to release it. In practice, a small percentage of the large number of grenades normally launched at a target area will fail to function as intended and will remain as duds dispersed in the field. The causes of such failures can range from complete failure to deploy the tape stiffener assembly to items which landed at such a flat angle that the component of the inertial force in the direction of the arming stem was insufficient to fire the item; in the case of deployment by rockets, the necessary rotation to cause arming is not as positive as it is in the case of artillery-launched grenades. Such items, when disturbed or handled, can function and represent a threat to friendly personnel. Entry into the infested zone is therefore hazardous and must await the time consuming clearing operations. In addition, trained enemy personnel may reclaim some portion of the duds and use them against friendly targets. Any improvement therefore in the elimination of grenade fuze duds, is an object of great usefulness to this field.